Capture Your Listeners

These audience hooks will help you kick off your next speech.

By Richard Ensman

Whether you're making a formal speech, offering a few
comments at a business meeting or beginning a sales presentation, the
first 30 seconds of your talk are crucial. It's during this time that
you'll capture the attentionand interestof your audience and
set the stage for a successful conclusion.

So how do you engage your audience during the first
30 seconds? Here are 20 great ways:

Agenda.
Highlight your key points. In other words, tell your audience what you're
about to tell them. This is a time-honored opening.

Anecdote. Relate an interesting story that
has some bearing on the topic. Caution: Keep it simple and brief!

Announcement. Do you have an interesting piece
of news to share? People often sit on the edges of their seats when
hearing something for the first time.

Belief. Recount for your audience an ideal
or virtue that motivates you. Then quickly explain how your belief influences
the comments you're about to make.

Contrast. Visualize for your audience how
the current state of affairs might change if your ideas are followed.
This opening works with broad topics, such as social
problems, as well
as with specific challenges you'd address in a sales call.

Dilemma. Identify with your audience by articulating
a frustrating, seemingly unsolvable problem of concern to them.

Display. Open with a moving photograph, a
startling graphic or a demonstration of a process or product.

History. Appeal to the memories and traditions
of your audience by recounting its origins, your longstanding relationship
to the group or some noteworthy past accomplishments.

Imagination. Paint a verbal picture of a resounding
accomplishment or success. Let your audience know that you're about
to tell them how that picture can come into being.

Involvement. Involve your audienceor
even humor themby inviting them to participate in a physical,
hands-on exercise. It might be as simple as a pen-and-paper exercise
or a warm-up exercise, whatever helps set the mood for what's to follow.

Joke. Offer a humorous story, a quip, a pun
or a yarn. One caution: If you're not comfortable with stand-up humor,
avoid this opening.

Picture. Make yourself part of the audience
by describing, with a bit of colorful detail, what members of the audience
experience each day.

Problem. Speaking with conviction and credibility
about problems the group faces each day is another way to build identification
with your audience.

Questions. Pose a series of pointed questions
to the audience, setting the stage for your presentation. These might
be rhetorical questions, designed to get audience members thinking,
or they might be real questions directed to individual members.

Recognition. Begin by recognizing the accomplishments
of the people in front of you. Alternatively, recount a few simple stories
about the people you're speaking to.

Secret. Everyone loves a secret. It doesn't
have to be earth shattering, but once you let your audience know that
you're going to impart something special to them, they'll listen with
rapt attention.

Solution. Let your audience know how to attack
a vexing problem. Or let them know that you're going to tell them how
to attack it.

Statistics. Numbers can be dry, but they can
also symbolize startling facts if they're presented with colorful background.

Thought. A talk or presentation is a highly
personal affair. So why not open up with a few random thoughts of your
own? Let your audience know what went through your mind as you prepared
for your talk, for instance, or the thoughts you pondered on the subject
over the last year.

Richard Ensman is a freelance writer
and frequent contributor to AdvisorToday.com. You may reach him
atpublisher@compuserve.com.